Radar recognition-aided search

ABSTRACT

This document describes techniques and devices for a radar recognition-aided search. Through use of a radar-based recognition system, gestures made by, and physiological information about, persons can be determined. In the case of physiological information, the techniques can use this information to refine a search. For example, if a person requests a search for a coffee shop, the techniques may refine the search to coffee shops in the direction that the person is walking. In the case of a gesture, the techniques may refine or base a search solely on the gesture. Thus, a search for information about a store, car, or tree can be made responsive to a gesture pointing at the store, car, or tree with or without explicit entry of a search query.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.Utility patent application Ser. No. 14/504,121, filed on Oct. 1, 2014,which in turn claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/040,925, filed on Aug. 22, 2014,the disclosure of which are incorporated in their entireties byreference herein.

BACKGROUND

This background description is provided for the purpose of generallypresenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicatedherein, material described in this section is neither expressly norimpliedly admitted to be prior art to the present disclosure or theappended claims.

Computer-aided searches are not only commonplace for billions of people,they are nearly essential in many people's day-to-day lives. Because ofthis, conventional search techniques use complex search algorithms toprovide search results that are better and better tailored to what aperson seeks when they enter a query for their search.

Even with these complex search algorithms, however, conventional searchtechniques can fail to provide a desired result. This can be due to alack of information, such as when a person enters few or ambiguoussearch terms for a query. If a person enters a search query of “BestItalian Restaurant” the search algorithm may not know enough informationto best perform the search—does the person mean within 10 kilometers ofhis current location? His hometown? At a city he will be visiting nextweek? Or does he want the best Italian Restaurant within some pricelimit? For these and other reasons, current techniques for performingcomputer-aided searches can fail to provide desired results.

SUMMARY

This document describes techniques and devices for a radarrecognition-aided search. Through use of a radar-based recognitionsystem, gestures made by, and physiological information about, personscan be determined. In the case of physiological information, thetechniques can use this information to refine a search. For example, ifa person requests a search for a coffee shop, the techniques may refinethe search to coffee shops in the direction that the person is walking.In the case of a gesture, the techniques may refine or base a searchsolely on the gesture. Thus, a search for information about a store,car, or tree can be made responsive to a gesture pointing at the store,car, or tree with or without explicit entry of a search query.

This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts concerningradar recognition-aided searches, which are further described below inthe Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identifyessential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended foruse in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of techniques and devices enabling radar recognition-aidedsearches are described with reference to the following drawings. Thesame numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like featuresand components:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment in which a radarrecognition-aided search can be implemented.

FIG. 2 illustrates the radar-based recognition system and computingdevice of FIG. 1 in detail.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for performing a search using oneor more search terms for a query and information about a gesture.

FIG. 4 illustrates a person with a gesture pointing down a street.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method performing a search usinginformation determined from a radar-recognized gesture and may or maynot include a search query selected explicitly by a person.

FIG. 6 illustrates a television playing audio-visual media, aradar-based recognition system, a radar field, and a person performing apointing gesture pointing at an object within the media.

FIG. 7 illustrates a person pointing to a building having a business.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method performing a search based on asearch query and radar-determined physiological information for aperson.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example electronic device enabling, or in whichtechniques may be implemented that enable use of, a radarrecognition-aided search.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

This document describes techniques enabling radar recognition-aidedsearches. These techniques enable improved computer-aided searchesthrough additional information provided by radar-recognized gestures andphysiological information. The radar-based recognition system describedherein permits recognition of a great breadth of gestures andphysiological information and in a robust set of circumstances. Thetechniques, along with the radar-based recognition system, enableimproved computer-aided searches and, in some cases, searches enabledwith little or no explicit entry of a search query.

Consider, for example, a case where a person is watching a televisionprogram on a computing device. Assume that the person sees a car beingdriven during the television program. The techniques described hereinpermit the user, with as little as an audio statement of “what kind ofcar is that?” or even “what is that?” and a gesture pointing at thetelevision screen, to receive search results for the particular carshown on the television.

Consider, as another example, a case where a person is standing on acorner in a city and requests a search for a best Indian restaurant andconcurrently makes a sweeping gesture having about a 90-degree arc. Thetechniques may provide search results tailored to city blocks withinthat 90-degree arc that are within a reasonable distance from theperson. Further still, the reasonable distance can be tailored tophysiological information determined for the person as well, such asinformation indicating that the person is hungry or dehydrated.

This document now turns to an example environment, after which exampleradar-based recognition systems and radar fields, example methods, andan example computing system are described.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of example environment 100 in which techniquesenabling radar recognition-aided searches and an apparatus including aradar-based recognition system may be embodied. Environment 100 includesan example computing device 102 having a search manager 104 and aradar-based recognition system 106. Radar-based recognition system 106provides a radar field 108 configured to recognize gestures orphysiological information of person 110. Search manager 104 searchesbased on information about person 110 or a gesture made by person 110,and in some cases also based on a search query selected by person 110.

Example configurations of computing device 102 are shown in FIG. 2 ,which depicts search manager 104, radar-based recognition system 106,and other components of computing device 102 in greater detail. Here,computing device 102 is illustrated as various non-limiting exampledevices: smartphone 102-1, television 102-2, tablet 102-3, laptop 102-4,computing bracelet 102-5, and computing spectacles 102-6, though otherdevices may also be used, such as home automation and control systems,entertainment systems, audio systems, desktop computers, other homeappliances, security systems, netbooks, smartphones, and e-readers. Notethat computing device 102 can be wearable, non-wearable but mobile, orrelatively immobile (e.g., desktops and appliances). Note also thatradar-based recognition system 106 can be used with, or embedded within,many different computing devices or peripherals, such as in automobilesor as an attachment to a laptop computer.

Further, radar field 108 can be invisible and penetrate some materials,such as textiles, thereby further expanding how the radar-basedrecognition system 106 can be used and embodied, e.g., to determine aperson's heart rate or a gesture made wearing gloves or with anocclusion between radar-based recognition system 106 and the person'shands. While examples shown herein generally show one radar-basedrecognition system 106 per device, multiples can be used, therebyincreasing a number and complexity of gestures and physiologicalinformation, as well as resolution, accuracy, and robust recognition.

Computing device 102 includes one or more computer processors 202 andcomputer-readable media 204, which includes memory media and storagemedia. Applications and/or an operating system (not shown) embodied ascomputer-readable instructions on computer-readable media 204 can beexecuted by processors 202 to provide some of the functionalitiesdescribed herein. Computer-readable media 204 also includes searchmanager 104.

Computing device 102 may also include network interfaces 206 forcommunicating data over wired, wireless, or optical networks and display208. By way of example and not limitation, network interface 206 maycommunicate data over a local-area-network (LAN), a wirelesslocal-area-network (WLAN), a personal-area-network (PAN), awide-area-network (WAN), an intranet, the Internet, a peer-to-peernetwork, point-to-point network, a mesh network, and the like.

Radar-based recognition system 106, as noted above, is configured torecognize gestures and determine physiological information. To enablethis, radar-based recognition system 106 includes a radar-emittingelement 210, an antenna element 212, and a signal processor 214.Generally, radar-emitting element 210 is configured to provide a radarfield, in some cases one that is configured to penetrate fabric or otherobstructions and reflect from human tissue. These fabrics orobstructions can include wood, glass, plastic, cotton, wool, nylon andsimilar fibers, and so forth, while reflecting from human tissues, suchas a person's hand.

This radar field can be a small size, such as about one millimeter to1.5 meters, or an intermediate size, such as about one to about 30meters. In the intermediate size, antenna element 212 and signalprocessor 214 are configured to receive and process reflections of theradar field to provide large-body gestures based on reflections fromhuman tissue caused by body, arm, or leg movements, though smaller andmore-precise gestures can be sensed as well. Example intermediate-sizedradar fields include those in which a user makes a gesture to point in adirection or at an object on a television.

Radar-emitting element 210 can instead be configured to provide a radarfield that is relatively small. Radar field 108 as illustrated in FIG. 1is one such relatively small field, and is configured for sensinggestures and physiological information for a person in contact with amobile computing device, such as computing bracelet 102-5.

Radar-emitting element 210 can be configured to emit continuouslymodulated radiation, ultra-wideband radiation, orsub-millimeter-frequency radiation. Radar-emitting element 210, in somecases, is configured to form radiation in beams, the beams aidingantenna element 212 and signal processor 214 to determine which of thebeams are interrupted, and thus locations of interactions (e.g., humanskin) within the radar field.

Antenna element 212 is configured to receive reflections of, or senseinteractions in, the radar field. In some cases, reflections includethose from human tissue that is within the radar field, such as skin ona person's arm to determine the person's temperature, or a hand orfinger movement to perform a gesture. Antenna element 212 can includeone or many antennas or sensors, such as an array of radiation sensors,the number in the array based on a desired resolution and whether thefield is a surface or volume.

Signal processor 214 is configured to process the received reflectionswithin the radar field to aid in determining a gesture or physiologicalinformation. Antenna element 212 may, in some cases, be configured toreceive reflections from multiple human tissue targets that are withinthe radar field and signal processor 214 be configured to process thereceived interactions sufficient to differentiate one of the multiplehuman tissue targets from another of the multiple human tissue targets.These targets may include hands, arms, legs, head, and body, from a sameor different person.

The field provided by radar-emitting element 210 can be athree-dimensional (3D) volume (e.g., hemisphere, cube, volumetric fan,cone, or cylinder) to sense in-the-air gestures, though a surface field(e.g., projecting on a surface of a person) can instead be used. Antennaelement 212 is configured, in some cases, to receive reflections frominteractions in the radar field of two or more targets (e.g., fingers,arms, or persons), and signal processor 214 is configured to process thereceived reflections sufficient to provide data by which to aid in thedetermination of gestures and/or physiological information.

To sense gestures through obstructions, radar-emitting element 210 canalso be configured to emit radiation capable of substantiallypenetrating fabric, wood, and glass, for example. In such cases, antennaelement 212 is configured to receive the reflections from the humantissue through the fabric, wood, or glass, and signal processor 214 isconfigured to analyze the received reflections even with the receivedreflections partially affected by passing through the obstruction twice.For example, the radar passes through a fabric layer interposed betweenthe radar emitter and a human arm, reflects off the human arm, and thenback through the fabric layer to the antenna element.

Radar-based recognition system 106 enables recognition of many differentgestures, such as those usable with current touch-sensitive displays,e.g., swipes, two-finger pinch, spread, rotate, tap, and so forth. Othergestures are also enabled that are complex, or simple butthree-dimensional, examples include the many sign-language gestures,e.g., those of American Sign Language (ASL) and other sign languagesworldwide. A few examples of these are: an up-and-down fist, which inASL means “Yes”; an open index and middle finger moving to connect to anopen thumb, which means “No”; a flat hand moving up a step, which means“Advance”; a flat and angled hand moving up and down; which means“Afternoon”; clenched fingers and open thumb moving to open fingers andan open thumb, which means “taxicab”; an index finger moving up in aroughly vertical direction, which means “up”; and so forth. These arebut a few of many gestures that can be sensed as well as be mapped toassociated meanings, which can in turn be used to make or refinecomputer-aided searches.

Radar-based recognition system 106 also includes transceiver 216, whichis configured to transmit gesture/physiological information to a remotedevice, though this may not be needed when radar-based recognitionsystem 106 is integrated with computing device 102. When included,gesture/physiological information can be provided in a format usable bya remote computing device sufficient for the remote computing device todetermine the physiological information or the information about thegesture in those cases where the gesture is not determined byradar-based recognition system 106 or computing device 102.

In more detail, radar-emitting element 210 can be configured to emitmicrowave radiation in a 1 GHz to 300 GHz range, a 3 GHz to 100 GHzrange, and narrower bands, such as 57 GHz to 63 GHz, to provide theradar field. This range affects antenna element 212's ability to receiveinteractions, such as to track locations of two or more targets to aresolution of about two to about 25 millimeters. Radar-emitting element210 can be configured, along with other entities of radar-basedrecognition system 106, to have a relatively fast update rate, which canaid in resolution of the interactions.

By selecting particular frequencies, radar-based recognition system 106can operate to substantially penetrate clothing while not substantiallypenetrating human tissue, or penetrating human tissue differently (e.g.,bone and skin). Further, antenna element 212 or signal processor 214 canbe configured to differentiate between interactions in the radar fieldcaused by clothing from those interactions in the radar field caused byhuman tissue, such as by analyzing variations in patterns, frequency,and/or strength of reflected signals. Thus, a person wearing gloves or along sleeve shirt that could interfere with sensing gestures with someconventional techniques can still be sensed with radar-based recognitionsystem 106.

Radar-based recognition system 106 may also include one or more systemprocessors 218 and system media 220 (e.g., one or more computer-readablestorage media). System media 220 includes system manager 222, which canperform various operations, including determining a gesture based ongesture data from signal processor 214, mapping the determined gestureto a pre-associated meaning, and causing transceiver 216 to transmit themeaning to an entity that performs the requested search.

These and other capabilities and configurations, as well as ways inwhich entities of FIGS. 1 and 2 act and interact, are set forth ingreater detail below. These entities may be further divided, combined,and so on. The environment 100 of FIG. 1 and the detailed illustrationsof FIGS. 2 and 8 illustrate some of many possible environments anddevices capable of employing the described techniques.

Example Methods

FIGS. 3, 5, and 8 depict methods enabling radar recognition-aidedsearches. Method 300 performs a search using a search query andinformation about a gesture. Method 500 performs a search usinginformation determined from a radar-recognized gesture, and may or maynot include a search query selected explicitly by a person. Method 800performs a search based on a query and radar-determined physiologicalinformation for a person.

These methods and other methods herein are shown as sets of operations(or acts) performed but are not necessarily limited to the order orcombinations in which the operations are shown herein. Further, any ofone or more of the operations may be repeated, combined, reorganized, orlinked to provide a wide array of additional and/or alternate methods.In portions of the following discussion reference may be made toenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 and as detailed in FIG. 2 , reference to whichis made for example only. The techniques are not limited to performanceby one entity or multiple entities operating on one device.

At 302, a search request having a search query is received. The searchrequest can be received in various manners, such as through anaudio-reception system, a touch screen, keyboard, and so forth.

At 304, a gesture received through a radar-based recognition system isrecognized. As noted above, this gesture can be received throughradar-based recognition system 106 detailed above. In more detail,radar-based recognition system 106 may provide a radar field, which canbe caused by one or more of search manager 104, system manager 222, orsignal processor 214. Thus, system manager 222 may cause radar-emittingelement 210 of radar-based recognition system 106 to provide (e.g.,project or emit) one of the described radar fields noted above, afterwhich one or more interactions by an actor (arm, hand, whole person) inthe radar field are sensed via reflections received by antenna element212. The reflections for the interaction can be processed by signalprocessor 214, which may provide gesture data for later determination asto the gesture intended, such as by system manager 222 or search manager104. Note that radar-emitting element 210, antenna element 212, andsignal processor 214 may act with or without processors andprocessor-executable instructions. Thus, radar-based recognition system106, in some cases, can be implemented with hardware or hardware inconjunction with software and/or firmware.

At 306, information about the gesture that is relevant to the searchrequest is determined. Determining information about the gesture that isrelevant to the search request may include comparing potential meaningsassociated with the gesture and refine the search using the determinedmeaning. Thus, assume that a particular gesture of a pointed fingermoving in a circle can mean “wrap it up” or “around me” or “circle.”This gesture, in combination with a commensurate search request to “finda best place to sit outside” can be determined to be “around me” ratherthan “wrap it up” or “circle.” Thus, the search is refined and a closestpark bench around the user is indicated.

The gesture information may instead indicate a geographical direction,such as a building, object, street, area, or alleyway. By way ofillustration, consider FIG. 4 , which shows a person 402 making agesture 404 that indicates a direction 406 down a street 408. Thus,search manager 104 may receive a search request (e.g., through a mobilecomputing device), and determine information about gesture 404indicating direction 406. This direction 406 can then be furtheranalyzed based on the person's or device's location (e.g., globalposition system (GPS) enabled devices) and/or which street or object towhich the person is pointing.

The gesture information may indicate a control input associated with thegesture. Assume that a user makes a gesture with a thumb-up fist turningin a clockwise direction. Assume also that this gesture is mapped to thefollowing inputs, three of which are control inputs: i) turn up volume;ii) fast forward; iii) aunt (from American Sign Language); and iv) resetto default settings (from prior user selection). Thus, one, for “aunt”is a word mapped to the gesture, and the other three, “turn up volume,”“fast forward,” and “reset to default settings” are controls recognizedby some device or application that are mapped to this same gesture.Thus, at 306, search manager 104 determines which of these three controlinputs include information relevant to the search.

By way of another example, assume that a gesture of a hand's fingers andthumb spreading apart is mapped to a “zoom in” control input as well asan “expand interface to cover display” control input. Search manager 104can determine that the “zoom in” control input is relevant based on thesearch request of “find best gyro shop” to mean the menu of the gyroshop as a way to “zoom in” to the search results.

At 308, a search is performed using the search query and the determinedinformation from the gesture. This search can be caused to be performedby a computing device that receives the gesture and query or by thecomputing device itself. Thus, the computing device may pass the queryand gesture information to a remote device (e.g., a server) to performthe search. Also, the search can be performed using the query and thenrefined or performed with both the query and gesture information. Thus,the determined information for the gesture may be used in a search or torefine a prior search that used the search query.

Continuing the ongoing example shown in FIG. 4 , assume that the searchquery received at operation 302 is “find me a good Café”. Search manager104 then determines, as noted above, that the gesture indicates street408. Based on these, search manager 104 performs a search for a Caféwith good ratings that is down street 408 from person 402 (e.g., café'swith that street's address and within a reasonable walking distance).

At 310, search results from performing the search using the search queryand the determined information are provided, such as to a personrequesting the search. These search results can be in various forms,such as locations on a map, a list of terms or webpages, andpresentation of media, such as when a search results in a song beingfound. Concluding the example of FIG. 4 , assume an audio system readsthe result or a display of a mobile device (e.g., display 208 ofcomputing spectacles 102-6 of FIG. 2 ) presents a list or map showingthe cafés.

To further illustrate ways in which method 300 may be performed,consider the following three examples. In a first example, assume that asearch request is received through an audio communication system andthat determining information at operation 306 is responsive to and basedon a gesture being received commensurate with receiving the searchrequest through the audio communication system. Thus, a user speaks aquery for a search and a gesture is received and analyzed based on beingcommensurate with the audio request.

In a second example, assume that a gesture points at an objectcommensurate with receiving a search request, such as “what kind of treeis that?” and pointing at a tree. Gesture information can be determined,based on the details provided by radar-based recognition system 106, tobe pointing at particular tree. This tree can be determined with acamera or other sensor of a mobile computing device also used in thesearch or based on a location of the user and known tree types near theperson and in the appropriate direction. Search manager 104, with thisinformation (e.g., a name of the tree), can present results indicatingthe informal name “Pecan Tree,” and search to find the technical name“Carya Illinoinensis,” that it is native to the Americas, and has onlyvery recently been domesticated as a crop in 1880 AD. Aside from thegreater implications of computer-aided searching that benefit generallyfrom these techniques, consider a child wearing computing spectacles102-6 that use these techniques. The child could discover an amazingbreadth and depth of information about her world through this teachingtool.

In a third example, consider a case where search manager 104 receives,through a mobile or non-mobile device, a request for “a fruit smoothie”along with making a stepped gesture known to have a meaning of a path ormap. Search manager 104 can determine that this information for thegesture indicates a path and, based on a time of day and a known paththat the person takes to work, perform a search for a fruit smoothiealong the person's typical walk and subway path to work. Thus, searchmanager 104 can perform or refine the search to the intended path andprovide places at which to get a fruit smoothie along that intendedpath.

Note that in some cases a person's gestures have a meaning or a controlinput associated with it, and that these can be determined asinformation relevant to a search. In other cases, gestures indicate adirection and thus some object, street, location, and so forth that isrelevant to a search. In still another example noted below, a gestureindicates an entity relevant to a search that is in media. In some casesthis media is an audio-visual program, such as a television programwhere the entity indicated by the gesture is an object in theprogram—e.g., a car or person. In some other cases this media is adocument, list, or other presentation of data, such as a table of dataor a list of search results. Indicating, through a gesture, an item inthe search results can then refine the search based on the item orselect the item. If refining the search, the gesture permits a simpleand easy way to drill down into the search results. Gesture informationtherefore encompasses a broad variety of information relevant tocomputer-aided searching.

Turning to FIG. 5 , consider method 500, which performs a search usinginformation determined from a radar-recognized gesture. This informationmay or may not include a search query selected explicitly by a person.

At 502, an indication that a person is requesting a search is received.This indication can be received as an explicit research request, such asa search query (e.g., words) entered into a data-entry field. In somecases, however, the indication can be simply a gesture, such as thegesture received at operation 504 below or some other gesture.

At 504, a gesture received through a radar-based recognition system isrecognized. Note that this gesture can be recognized, and informationabout it determined, responsive to another gesture received through theradar-based recognition system and determined to indicate a search.

At 506, information about the gesture sufficient to perform a search isdetermined. This information can include the various types ofinformation noted above. Note that the methods may, prior to performingthe search using the determined information, prompt the person foradditional information, receive the additional information, and performthe search with the additional information. This can be useful in caseswhere search manager 104 determines that the information determined atoperation 506 is not sufficient for adequately directed or detailedsearch results.

As noted above, methods 500 may operate with little or no non-gestureinputs. Consider, by way of example, a person desiring to find food downa particular street and that, due to bad weather, loud surroundings, ora physical disability (e.g., being mute), does not make audio or touchselections. The person may select, with a gesture to indicate that sheis requesting a search, to search and then select one or more othergestures. Assume that she makes a circular gesture in the air, then putsher hand to her mouth as a second gesture, and then points down a streetas a third gesture. Search manager 104 may determine that the circulargesture indicates a search is desired, the second gesture is determinedto be information having a meaning of “find food or restaurants,” andthe third gesture is also recognized as a geographical direction. Basedon these gestures, information can be determined to refine to search tofood or restaurants down the street that the person pointed.

At 508, the requested search is performed using the determinedinformation. Note that the search can be performed using only thedetermined information from the gesture, though this is not required. Insome cases, however, additional information is used, such as a searchquery received at operation 502, or search manager 104 can find othercontextual information, such as that the computing device through whichthe gesture is received is playing media, and thus that this media canbe used as additional information, or location data indicating that theperson is at a park, and so forth.

At 510, the search results resulting from performing the requestedsearch using the determined information are provided. Concluding theexample in which only gestures are used, a computing device providesfood stores and restaurants down the street in one of the variousmanners described herein.

To illustrate ways in which method 500 may be operate, consider FIG. 6 .FIG. 6 shows television 102-2 playing audio-visual media 602,radar-based recognition system 106 as a peripheral to television 102-2,a radar field 604 generated by radar-based recognition system 106, and aperson 606 performing a pointing gesture 608. Here assume that person606 is watching audio-visual media 602 (e.g., a movie) and sees a car ontelevision 102-2. Assume also that persons 606 wants to know more aboutthis car. The techniques, either following method 300 or 500 or somecombination thereof, permit person 606 to search for information aboutthis car with as little as a statement “what kind of car is that” andpointing gesture 608 or a gesture indicating a search is desired andpointing gesture 608, even without any statement. Television 102-2,through radar-based recognition system 106, can determine sufficientinformation about the gesture and, by search manager 104 analyzingaudio-visual media 602 at a time commensurate with the gesture, performor refine a search. Then search manager 104 causes television 102-2′sdisplay or speakers to present results of the search.

To illustrate another way in which methods 300 or 500 may be operate,consider FIG. 7 , which shows a person 702 pointing with a gesture 704along a direction 706 to a building 708 having a business 710 (Joe'sFood). The techniques, with or without a search query, can determinesufficient information about gesture 704 to perform a search to find outmore about businesses at building 708, such as Joe's Food. Thus, searchmanager 104 can determine the building that is being pointed out,businesses at the building, a likely business of interest based on aprominent storefront or large percentage of the square footage ofbuilding 708, and provide search results indicating that Joe's Food isnot a grocery, but is instead a high-end seafood restaurant. Additionalinformation may also be provided to person 702, such as a menu or hoursof operation for Joe's Food. Refining the search be responsive to theperson indicating some search query, such as “what is Joe's,” but thatis not required.

Turning to FIG. 8 , method 800 performs a search based on a search queryand radar-determined physiological information for a person. Thus, asearch can be performed using information about a person's physiology,independent or in conjunction with other search information.

At 802, a search request having a search query is received. This searchrequest can be received from an input device, such as a computingdevice, audio recognition software, user interface, and so forth. Thesearch request can be associated with a person, such as one associatedwith the input device. This association can be based on the input, orhaving a right to control the input device.

At 804, physiological information about the person is determined througha radar-based recognition system. Details of ways in which radar-basedrecognition system 106 operates are described above and, as noted, candifferentiate objects, fabric, and other materials from human tissue, oreven particular types of human tissue. Therefore, the techniques arecapable of determining a person's body or skin temperature, heart rate,perspiration, stress level, hydration level, and so forth.

At 806, the requested search is performed using the a search query andthe determined physiological information about the person. Any suitableinformation sources may be searched, such as the Internet, an intranet,local device data, a search history associated with a user, a locationhistory associated with the user, social media, calendar information,and the like.

At 808, the search results resulting from performing the requestedsearch using the search query and the determined physiologicalinformation is provided. By way of example, assume that a personrequests a search of “find a good place for a drink.” If, at 804, searchmanager 104 determined that the person is dehydrated, search manager 104may present lower-rated stores and cafés near the person but, if theperson is not dehydrated, instead present better-rated stores and cafésfurther from the person. If, on the other hand, the physiologicalinformation indicates a physical orientation, such as a gate anddirection of the person and thus that the person is walking a particulardirection, to present search results along the particular directionrather than simply near (and possible behind, left, or right from) theperson.

While the above examples are directed to Internet searches, these arenot the only computer-aided searches contemplated by the techniques.File searches, media searches, such as searching metadata foraudio-visual media 602 instead of an Internet search, catalog or listsearches, and so forth can benefit from the techniques.

The preceding discussion describes methods relating to radarrecognition-aided searches. Aspects of these methods may be implementedin hardware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), firmware, software, manualprocessing, or any combination thereof. These techniques may be embodiedon one or more of the entities shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9(electronic device 900 is described in FIG. 9 below), which may befurther divided, combined, and so on. Thus, these figures illustratesome of the many possible systems or apparatuses capable of employingthe described techniques. The entities of these figures generallyrepresent software, firmware, hardware, whole devices or networks, or acombination thereof.

Example Electronic Device

FIG. 9 illustrates various components of example electronic device 900(device 900) that can be implemented as any type of client, server,and/or computing device as described with reference to the previousFIGS. 1-8 to implement radar recognition-aided searches.

Device 900 includes communication devices 902 that enable wired and/orwireless communication of device data 904 (e.g., received data, datathat is being received, data scheduled for broadcast, data packets ofthe data, etc.). Device data 904 or other device content can includeconfiguration settings of the device, media content stored on thedevice, and/or information associated with a user of the device (e.g.,an identity of an actor performing a gesture). Media content stored ondevice 900 can include any type of audio, video, and/or image data.Device 900 includes one or more data inputs 906 via which any type ofdata, media content, and/or inputs can be received, such as humanutterances, interactions with a radar field, user-selectable inputs(explicit or implicit), messages, music, television media content,recorded video content, and any other type of audio, video, and/or imagedata received from any content and/or data source.

Device 900 also includes communication interfaces 908, which can beimplemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallel interface, awireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem, and as anyother type of communication interface. Communication interfaces 908provide a connection and/or communication links between device 900 and acommunication network by which other electronic, computing, andcommunication devices communicate data with device 900.

Device 900 includes one or more processors 910 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like), which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 900and to enable techniques for, or in which can be embodied, a radarrecognition-aided search. Alternatively or in addition, device 900 canbe implemented with any one or combination of hardware, firmware, orfixed logic circuitry that is implemented in connection with processingand control circuits which are generally identified at 912. Although notshown, device 900 can include a system bus or data transfer system thatcouples the various components within the device. A system bus caninclude any one or combination of different bus structures, such as amemory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, a universal serialbus, and/or a processor or local bus that utilizes any of a variety ofbus architectures.

Device 900 also includes computer-readable media 914, such as one ormore memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitory datastorage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission), examples ofwhich include random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., anyone or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM,etc.), and a disk storage device. A disk storage device may beimplemented as any type of magnetic or optical storage device, such as ahard disk drive, a recordable and/or rewriteable compact disc (CD), anytype of a digital versatile disc (DVD), and the like. Device 900 canalso include a mass storage media device (storage media) 916.

Computer-readable media 914 provides data storage mechanisms to storedevice data 904, as well as various device applications 918 and anyother types of information and/or data related to operational aspects ofdevice 900. For example, an operating system 920 can be maintained as acomputer application with computer-readable media 914 and executed onprocessors 910. Device applications 918 may include a device manager,such as any form of a control application, software application,signal-processing and control module, code that is native to aparticular device, a hardware abstraction layer for a particular device,and so on. Device applications 918 also include system components,engines, or managers to implement radar recognition-aided searches, suchas search manager 104 and system manager 222.

CONCLUSION

Although embodiments of techniques enabling radar recognition-aidedsearches have been described in language specific to features and/ormethods, it is to be understood that the subject of the appended claimsis not necessarily limited to the specific features or methodsdescribed. Rather, the specific features and methods are disclosed asexample implementations of ways in which to perform a radarrecognition-aided search.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, the methodimplemented on a smartphone and comprising: receiving, by thesmartphone, an audio search request having a search query; recognizing,by the smartphone, an in-the-air gesture that has multiple potentialmeanings and is received through a radar-based recognition system, therecognizing based on reflections of a radar field received by an antennaof the radar-based recognition system; determining, by the smartphoneand based on the search query, a meaning from the multiple potentialmeanings, the determined meaning indicating an object to which thein-the-air gesture is directed; causing, by the smartphone, a search tobe performed, the search based on the received search query and theobject to which the in-the-air gesture is directed; and providing, bythe smartphone, search results responsive to performance of the search.2. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, whereinreceiving the audio search request having the search query receives theaudio search request through a microphone of the smartphone, determiningthe meaning of the in-the-air gesture indicates that the object to whichthe in-the-gesture is directed is in audio-visual media, and providingthe search results provides the search results in the form of locationson a map, a list of terms, webpages, or a media presentation.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein thedetermining the meaning determines the meaning to be a pointing gesturethat is pointing at the object.
 4. The computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 3, wherein the determining the meaning to be thepointing gesture further comprises determining that the pointing gestureis directed at a display on which the object is presented.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 3, wherein thepointing gesture refines the search query, the search query indicatingmultiple possible subjects associated with multiple objects on thedisplay, the pointing gesture useable to determine the object from themultiple possible objects on the display effective to select a selectedsubject from the multiple possible subjects.
 6. The computer-implementedmethod as described in claim 5, wherein causing the search to beperformed comprises adding, to the search query, text associated with oridentifying the selected subject.
 7. A portable electronic device, theportable electronic device being a smartphone or wearable devicecomprising: a display, the display configured to present audio-visualmedia; a microphone, the microphone configured to receive an audiosearch request; computer-readable storage media configured to storeinstructions; and at least one processor, the processor configured toexecute the instructions to: receive, through the microphone, an audiosearch request having a search query; recognize an in-the-gesture thathas multiple potential meanings and is received through a radar-basedrecognition system, the recognizing based on reflections of a radarfield received by an antenna of the radar-based recognition system;determine, based on the search query, a meaning from the multiplepotential meanings, the determined meaning indicating an object to whichthe in-the-air gesture is directed; cause a search to be performed, thesearch based on the received search query and the object to which thein-the-air gesture is directed; and provide search results responsive toperformance of the search.
 8. The portable electronic device of claim 7,wherein determining the meaning determines that the object to which thein-the-air gesture is directed is in audio-visual media and providingthe search results provides the search results in the form of locationson a map, a list of terms, webpages, or a media presentation.
 9. Theportable electronic device of claim 7, wherein the portable electronicdevice is a wearable device, the wearable device comprising theradar-based recognition system.
 10. The portable electronic device ofclaim 9, wherein the wearable device determines information about thein-the-air gesture that is relevant to the search request, thedetermination including comparing potential meanings associated with thein-the-air gesture.
 11. The portable electronic device of claim 7,wherein the determining the meaning from the multiple potential meaningsdetermines the meaning to be a pointing gesture that is pointing at theobject.
 12. The portable electronic device of claim 11, wherein thedetermining the meaning to be the pointing gesture further comprisesdetermining that the pointing gesture is directed at the display oranother display on which the object is presented.
 13. The portableelectronic device of claim 11, wherein the pointing gesture refines thesearch query, the search query indicating multiple possible subjectsassociated with multiple objects on the display or on another display,the pointing gesture useable to determine the object from the multipleobjects effective to select a selected subject from the multiplepossible subjects.
 14. The portable electronic device of claim 13,wherein causing the search to be performed comprises adding, to thesearch query, text associated with or identifying the selected subject.15. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a search requesthaving a search query; recognizing an in-the-air gesture that hasmultiple potential meanings and is received through a radar-basedrecognition system, the recognizing based on reflections of a radarfield received by an antenna of the radar-based recognition system;determining, based on the received search query, a meaning from themultiple potential meanings, the determined meaning indicating anelement in audio-visual media to which the in-the-air gesture isdirected; causing a search to be performed, the search based on thereceived search query and the indicated element in the audio-visualmedia to which the in-the-air gesture is directed; and causing searchresults to be provided responsive to performance of the search.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 15, wherein receivingthe search request and determining the meaning is responsive to andbased on the in-the-air gesture being recognized commensurate withreceiving the search request.
 17. The computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 15, wherein the method is performed by a smartappliance.
 18. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 15,wherein the element in the audio-visual media is presented on atelevision (TV).
 19. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 18, wherein causing the search to be performed based on thereceived search query and the indicated element includes causing thesearch to be performed using information about the indicated elementreceived from the TV over a wireless network.
 20. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 18, wherein theradar-based recognition system is integral with the TV.
 21. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 15, wherein theradar-based recognition system is integral with a smart appliance, theradar-based recognition system effective to receive, through theantenna, the reflections of the radar field and generate, based on thereceived reflections, gesture information, and wherein recognizing thein-the-air gesture is based on the generated gesture information. 22.The computer-implemented method as described in claim 21, wherein thesmart appliance determines information about the in-the-air gesture thatis relevant to the search query, the determination including comparingthe multiple potential meanings associated with the in-the-air gesture.23. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 15, whereindetermining the meaning determines the meaning to include a pointinggesture.
 24. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 23,wherein determining the meaning to include the pointing gesture furthercomprises determining that the pointing gesture is directed at a displayon which the audio-visual media is presented.
 25. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 24, wherein the methodis performed by a smart appliance, the display is associated with atelevision (TV), and further comprising the smart appliance requestingmetadata about the audio-visual media from the TV or an entityassociated with the TV.
 26. The computer-implemented method as describedin claim 25, further comprising: receiving, at the smart appliance, themetadata about the audio-visual media; and determining, based on themetadata, information about the element, and wherein the search isfurther based on the determined information about the element.
 27. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 25, further comprisingthe smart appliance prompting the TV to determine information about theelement presented on the display of the TV.
 28. The computer-implementedmethod as described in claim 27, further comprising the smart appliancereceiving information about the element presented on the display of theTV through communication over a wireless network and from the entityassociated with the TV, and wherein the search is further based on theinformation about the element.
 29. The computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 15, wherein determining the meaning is further basedon analysis of an image captured, by a camera, of the element in theaudio-visual media.
 30. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 29, wherein analysis of the captured image generates informationabout the element in the audio-visual media, and wherein the search isfurther based on the information about the element.
 31. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 15, wherein thein-the-air gesture is recognized as a pointing gesture directed at adisplay associated with a TV, the display of the TV presenting theaudio-visual media, the audio-visual media presenting the element and atleast one other element, and wherein determining the meaning indicatingthe element is based on determining that the pointing gesture isdirected at the element in the audio-visual media.
 32. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 31, wherein the smartappliance provides search results, responsive to the search request, tothe TV such that the TV can present the search results, the searchresults in a form of a list of terms, text, one or more webpages, or amedia presentation.
 33. The computer-implemented method as described inclaim 31, wherein the smart appliance provides search results as audiooutput, responsive to the search request, to a user.
 34. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 15, wherein thein-the-air gesture is recognized as a pointing gesture directed at adisplay, the display presenting the audio-visual media, and theaudio-visual media presenting multiple possible elements associated withthe search query, and wherein determining the meaning indicating theelement is based on determining that the pointing gesture is directed atthe element in the audio-visual media.
 35. The computer-implementedmethod as described in claim 34, wherein the selected element includestext that refines or adds information to the search query.
 36. Thecomputer-implemented method as described in claim 15, wherein causingsearch results to be provided causes a smart appliance to provide thesearch results as audio output.
 37. A computing device comprising: adisplay, the display configured to present audio-visual media; amicrophone, the microphone configured to receive an audio searchrequest; a radar-based recognition system; computer-readable storagemedia configured to store instructions; and at least one processor, theprocessor configured to execute the instructions to: receive, throughthe microphone, an audio search request having a search query; recognizean in-the-gesture that has multiple potential meanings and is receivedthrough the radar-based recognition system, the recognition based onreflections of a radar field received by an antenna of the radar-basedrecognition system; determine, based on the search query, a meaning fromthe multiple potential meanings, the determined meaning indicating anelement in audio-visual media displayed on the display and to which thein-the-air gesture is directed; cause a search to be performed, thesearch based on the received search query and the indicated element inthe audio-visual media to which the in-the-air gesture is directed; andcause search results to be provided responsive to performance of thesearch.
 38. The computing device of claim 37, wherein determining themeaning is further based on a relevance of each of the multiplepotential meanings to search request.
 39. The computing device of claim37, wherein the computing device is a smart appliance, the smartappliance includes a speaker configured to produce an audio output, andwherein to cause the search results to be provided provides the searchresults as audio output through the speaker.
 40. The computing device ofclaim 37, wherein the computing device is a computing system including atelevision (TV) on which the element is displayed and a smart appliancethat includes the computer-readable storage media and the at least oneprocessor.
 41. The computing device of claim 40, wherein the radar-basedrecognition system is integral with the TV, the radar-based recognitionsystem effective to receive the in-the-air gesture and generate gestureinformation, the gesture information communicated by the TV via thewireless network and recognized by the smart appliance.
 42. Thecomputing device of claim 37, wherein the determination of the meaningincludes a determination that the meaning includes a pointing gesture.43. The computing device of claim 42, wherein the determination of themeaning to include the pointing gesture further comprises determiningthat the pointing gesture is directed at the display on which theaudio-visual media is presented.
 44. The computing device of claim 43,wherein the execution of the instructions is performed by a smartappliance, the display is associated with a television (TV), and furthercomprising the smart appliance requesting metadata about theaudio-visual media from the TV or an entity associated with the TV. 45.The computing device of claim 44, wherein the instructions are furtherconfigured to: receive, at the smart appliance, the metadata about theaudio-visual media; and determine, based on the metadata, informationabout the element, and wherein the search is further based on thedetermined information about the element.
 46. The computing device ofclaim 37, wherein the determination of the meaning is further based onanalysis of a captured image of the element in the audio-visual media.47. The computing device of claim 46, wherein the instructions arefurther configured to analyze the captured image through imageidentification to generate information about the element in theaudio-visual media, and wherein the search is further based on theinformation about the element.
 48. The computing device of claim 37,wherein the in-the-air gesture is recognized as a pointing gesturedirected at the display presenting the audio-visual media, theaudio-visual media presenting the element and at least one otherelement, and wherein determining the meaning indicating the element isbased on determining that the pointing gesture is directed at theelement in the audio-visual media.
 49. The computing device of claim 48,wherein the selected element includes text that refines or addsinformation to the search query.
 50. The computing device of claim 37,wherein the cause the search results to be provided causes a smartappliance to provide the search results as audio output through aspeaker of the smart appliance, text through the display or anotherdisplay associated with the computing device, or another audio-visualmedia through a television or computer monitor associated with thecomputing device.